Day 57: The Dead Pen Pal Box Part Two

"How it sears my soul!"

My pen pal Mary Jane on the east coast liked to write poetry. Pretty deep stuff. Actually it's fairly similar to the stuff I composed at the same age, e.g., "How do I say what I feel when I don't even feel what I say?"... Or something along those lines...)

She also liked to drink. Well, not rye "(yuk)". I can't figure out if they had Vermouth (yuk from me!!) Friday night or if they had nothing till they went to Vermont Friday night. (She lived in New England in an adjacent state.) Maybe it was vermouth in Vermont? And what's in the highballs?

"I don't drink that much, I mean at long intervals, but I like to be part of the group, and you're really "in" if you drink, besides it's fun."

I myself never understood peer pressure; therefore I was never "in". That's why I had pen pals! And no hangovers.

Anyway, she wrote a lot more than three letters, but I think that was the final one. So I never got to hear about her bug collection due in June - that intrigued me!

Oh, one more bit. That Sorry So Sloppy thing was very common at the end of 70s letters!

Mary Jane dug the actor A Martinez; I would send her pictures of him from 16 Magazine. And I thought you would love seeing how John Denver was a sex symbol to young teenagers in the 70s. A lot of my peers fancied him! Sean Kelly was a teenage actor (in The Cowboys, just had to Google, and saw a yecchy photo of him posing with plumber's cleavage) as was Mitch Vogel; I am more familiar with him as he was on Little House on the Prairie, and also in Born Innocent with Linda Blair!

"However he looks stupid on Star Trek"

I met Jurate in San Diego and we wrote to each other even though she lived on the other side of L.A., in Los Feliz. We did meet up once or twice. I had told her I had seen Leonard Nimoy in person; he was doing something on stage at the Music Center.

"I don't like the Partridge Family too much now. I don't like the Osmond Brothers either. P.S. I hate David Cassidy."

Jurate had good taste in decor though: "The living room has blue curtains and a blue sofa, and a gorgeous gold and spring green shag rug."

PS I just googled her and she is now a dentist in San Francisco.

I was dazzled by Debbie of B.C.'s stationery.

And Debbie of New York's purple Peanuts writing set...

This Debbie (there were a LOT of Debbies in my day) wrote to me for several years. This was her final letter to me. I guess things never did settle down.

Squeeze the latest news on the stomach of a psychedelic green frog, then stick the whole thing in a hot orange envelope. Don't forget to dot your i's with circles!

Giant stationery with fashionable female. I think the writing on the other side only covered a quarter of it.

Final letter from Margie something, with a pop-up owl. "I've never been to California. But maybe in the future I can come to see you?" (If she still has this address, she had better hurry up!)

Love, Luck & Lollipops! (Huh?!)



Two popular things to write on the backs of envelopes. Was Elvis a sprinter?

Well, speaking of sprinters, I surely was not one! I came in last of my entire grade in the President's Physical Fitness Test, for both the 50-yard dash and the 500-yard Run/Walk. (I mostly walked.) (Do they still have such nonsense?)

But hey, groovy stationery!!

This purple loving letter writer also would fold her letters up like so. P.S. It also worked if you pulled quickly; I tried it!

The lowdown from Laura

This was a school friend who had moved to La Canada; before it joined to Flintridge.

I wonder what my version of this stationery said: Kibitzing from Karen?

A psychedelic sunburst on lilac

A lot of letters from this era were adorned with scented sealing wax. This one wasn't; that's the residue of a disintegrated rubber band! (The red ones did not last.) Very groovy stationery indeed!